Monday, August 25, 2008

Short Takes

It turns out I am pretty busy, so I don't have time to actually blog. I'll just give the short version of everything, in no particular order. I might try to do this every month or so, but I might not.

The Jets gave up too much for Favre. Green Bay would have given him away for free just to be done with it and not have him in Minnesota.

Fearless prediction: The Jets will win 6-8 games this year. If they win 8, Mangina will get an extension.

It shouldn't be necessary for the NFL to install a first round contract pay scale. The market has every reason to be efficient. Teams get the top picks by being bad, and they are bad because they do things like overpay rookies.

The NFL paid for Matt Walsh's silence, most likely a lot. The Pastriots cheated, it goes deeper than we know, and for some reason, the NFL deems it necessary to protect them. Roger Goodell is a shady bastard.

The Pastriots are far from the only team to videotape opponents' signals. That's why other coaches always decline to criticize them.

Al Davis is batshit crazy. It's really funny that he gets to run an NFL team.

My fantasy baseball team, Team V, is awesome.

John McCain sucks. A lot.

Soccer is a cool concept, but it's presented in a way that minimizes the excitement. "This game ends in an exhiliarating 1-1 tie!" Lame.

Fuck that idiot Clemens. How dumb does he think we are? He deserves whatever happens to him, and I hope that is jail. When guys admit it, it blows over so fast. The public only remembers the liars and their unbelievable chutzpah.

Olympics in China was an incredibly stupid idea. Everyone will say it was a success because the games have been great, but why wouldn't they be? The issues with China had nothing to do with their ability to execute the games, except the air thing(also a human rights issue I think), which we'll probably find out in a few months caused a lot of problems. The success of the games themselves doesn't change the fact that the preliminary ceremonial stuff was ruined by protesters who are right, and that China does horrible things to people and doesn't deserve the economic boost, the PR boost, always important in a non-free society; the claim to legitimacy. Just watch-from here, it'll all be about how great the games were. I hope the protest groups have an encore planned, so the public doesn't forget the truth.

Steroids were not invented in 1996. There is no reason to assume that players from past generations in any sport were clean, especially not Willy Mays, by association to Bonds. The 1970s Steelers were on them-the perfect Dolphins were not? How did they beat the Steelers then? How was Babe Ruth so much better than everyone else? Et cetera.

Before even thinking about making the net bigger, hockey has to make the goalies wear normal-sized equipment. Oversized goalie equipment is cheating, or should be, and it cheapens the game. The NHL cracked down on cheap defensive play with great success, so I am confident they will get this right too. Even until they do, hockey is still awesome. You guys are missing out.

The given reasons for why nobody wants Barry Bonds are bullshit. Moral stance-don't be naive. Same about clubhouse chemistry. Media storm-who cares? Even(especially?) in NY-is it really better to listen to them bitch all the time about how much you suck? Would teams really be shipping top prospects at the deadline for short term star rentals when one of the best hitters of all time, coming off an injury-shortened but spectacular season(.480 OBP in 2007), could be added for almost nothing? He is 44 and off the juice because they test now. The only reason nobody has signed Bonds is that the baseball world has reached a consensus-he isn't good anymore. .